'The brutality of the whole thing' still haunts woman injured by Kalamazoo County deputy

Attorney Ven Johnson and Michelle Selbee discuss the $1.1 million settlement with Kalamazoo County over injuries she received Oct. 29, 2010 when Kalamazoo County deputies mistook her for a fleeing suspectJohn Tunison | The Grand Rapids Pres

GRAND RAPIDS, MI -- More than two years later, Michelle Selbee distinctly remembers the terrifying moments when a Kalamazoo County sheriff's deputy began ripping her out of her car.

"I could hear (my) hair popping as it was being ripped out. That's the first thing I remember," she said today, not long after U.S. District Court Judge Robert Jonker in Grand Rapids approved a $1.1 million settlement between Selbee and Kalamazoo County.

Deputy Larry Czarnowski and Reserve Deputy Nicholas Mihalek lost sight of the Camry and believed it had stopped at Selbee's home in Scotts amid the Oct. 29, 2010 pursuit.

Selbee, who had backed into her driveway because she heard the oncoming sirens and wanted to get out of the way, described how she was ripped out of her car by the hair, thrown to the ground and handcuffed.

She sustained an aggravated neck injury expected to require surgery and two broken ribs, among other injuries.

"I had just opened the car door just enough and he just reached in over the top and my body hit the door on the way out," she said. "I just flew and rolled."

Of the settlement funds, $348,929 will go to her attorneys and $53,212 for litigation costs.

Selbee and her 16-year-old son, Zachary, will receive the balance, nearly $700,000. Of that, her son will receive $50,000 in structured payout and Selbee will get $227,858 in cash and $420,000 in a structured payout.

Judge Jonker described it as a "tough case."

"What you have is the presence of the police who thought they were doing this in the interest of public safety, but made a horrible mistake," he said.

But Selbee and her attorney, Ven Johnson, claimed the deputies made several errors and did not follow normal police protocol. Among those, Johnson said, was to approach Selbee's car at all instead of simply ordering her verbally to exit the car and lay on the ground.

"This is not simply a case of mistaken identity. What happened to Michelle and Zach, substantially, is that their lives were ruined, their civil liberties were violated," Johnson said today.

The two deputies were in a Chevy Tahoe in Scotts when they joined the pursuit of John and Denise Metzelburg, who were already being followed by Kent County deputies in an unmarked car. The Metzelburgs later were caught when their car crashed in St. Joseph County.

Selbee said she has never received a personal apology from the deputies. It would not have sufficed, anyway, she said.

"The brutality of the whole thing. I could see it in his face as he was running at my car. He intended to hurt me, flat out, and he did," she said. "And to be on my back and have me by the hair, slamming my head down, with a gun to my head, no, a sorry is not going to cut it," she said.

John Metzelburg, the suspect chased by police, has written Selbee to apologize for the trauma she received.